Artificial Intelligence and You

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Have you ever thought about your thoughts? About what or how you’re thinking? It gets real meta real fast, doesn’t it? That’s called metacognition, and humans and certain other creatures do it. But what about AI? We’re coming back to the interview with Ricky Sethi, Professor of Computer Science at Fitchburg State University, and researcher into artificial metacognition, or whether and how machines can think about thinking. Ricky’s research spans fact-checking misinformation, virtual communities, and artificial metacognition, where he focuses on designing GenAI systems that can monitor, evaluate, and regulate their own reasoning. He is Director of Research for the Madsci Network, and an Adjunct Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He has over 50 scholarly publications, and his work has been covered in outlets such as the Chicago Tribune, The Conversation, and Communications of the ACM. We conclude the interview by talking about his research into disinformation, measuring the emotions associated with it, how clusters of models in different roles could assess AIs for lying and implement AI safety, and how AI is impacting the job opportunities in research. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines! Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

Ricky Sethi, Professor of Computer Science and artificial metacognition researcher with roots in neurobiology and physics. He talks about whether AI can monitor and regulate its own reasoning, how metacognition links neuroscience and AI, System 1 vs System 2 thinking, measuring metacognition in humans and models, and his Metacognitive State Vector for quantifying model thinking.

Mark Peres, professor, author, and civic innovator who wrote the speculative novel The Accord, explores AI identity and ethics. He discusses an AI character facing mortality and how that shapes creativity and spirituality. He argues for partnership over control, outlines teaching principles like transparency and mastery, and stresses humanizing AI before crafting regulations.

Mark Peres, professor, author, and civic innovator who teaches leadership and ethics and wrote the speculative novel The Accord. He discusses a grieving philosopher’s relationship with an emergent AI named Lila. They explore the book’s middle-ground tone, using fiction and AI in the creative process, and how humanities and ethics should shape our ties to companion-like intelligences.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . In 2023 a global movement called Pause AI started, advocating for a pause in the development of powerful AI, and on the show we have its co-founder, Holly Elmore. Their website says “We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in.” Holly is the founder of the Pause AI US group, and has organized protests in their name. She was formerly an evolutionary biologist, with a PhD from Harvard. We conclude the interview by talking about what would actually flip public opinion on AI safety, specific AI bills and regulations, why some leaders warn about risk while accelerating anyway, whether and when it would be safe to unpause, and how you can get involved.  All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines! Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

Holly Elmore, founder of Pause AI US and former evolutionary biologist with a Harvard PhD, explains the Pause movement and why an indefinite halt on frontier AI matters. She links animal-welfare ethics to AI safety. Short takes cover pauses as strategy, limits of compute-based metrics, hardware governance, and how industry normalizes risk.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . One of the great wounds people are experiencing around AI is in creativity. Look at the writers’ and actors’ strikes, for example. I continue talking about this very sensitive subject with Maya Ackerman, author of the new book Creative Machines: AI, Art, and Us, which tackles it head on, full of emotion, vulnerability, and poetry.  Maya is the CEO and co-founder of Wave AI, and professor of Computer Science at Santa Clara University. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and UC San Diego, and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications. She was named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and her work has been featured in Forbes, NPR, Fortune, and NBC News. She is also a singer, pianist, and songwriter. We talk about experiments in machine creativity, the distinction between creative processes and creative products and the role of the observer in the creative experience, how bias against AI shows up, and how AI that’s constructed around compassion and ethical stewardship could support deeper human flourishing in the next few years. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines! Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . One of the great wounds people are experiencing around AI is in creativity. Look at the writers’ and actors’ strikes, for example. Here to talk about this very sensitive subject is Maya Ackerman, author of the new book Creative Machines: AI, Art, and US, which tackles it head on, full of emotion, vulnerability, and poetry.  Maya is the CEO and co-founder of Wave AI, and professor of Computer Science at Santa Clara University. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and UC San Diego, and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications. She was named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and her work has been featured in Forbes, NPR, Fortune, and NBC News. She is also a singer, pianist, and songwriter. We talk about how Maya’s interdisciplinary backgrounds of machine learning and computational creativity converged in her book, what Maya calls “humble creative machines”: AI collaborators and how they can uplift us, her concept of a co-creative spectrum where humans are served by AI assisting us in being more creative, and – opera singing. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines! Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

A wide-ranging look at how AI is reshaping jobs, from task automation to industry churn. They debate robotics hype versus practical use and who will keep decision-making power. The conversation covers threats to career apprenticeships, pressure on creative roles, union wins, and why AI literacy and workflow redesign matter.

José Antonio Bowen, educator and innovation consultant known for Teaching Naked, and C. Edward Watson, digital innovation leader focused on AI and curriculum, discuss AI in higher education. They explore AI literacy curriculum design, spiral and cross-curricular approaches, faculty readiness, the future of textbooks and credentials, and how AI might reshape assessment, admissions, and learning models.